Deck of the Week: Modern Grishoalbrand

(Editor’s note: With Pro Tour Rivals of Ixalan not far behind us and new unbannings not far in the future, Modern has been the talk of the Magic community this week. We also just happen to have a Modern 1K coming up this Saturday, and we’ll be broadcasting all the action on our Twitch channel. To help get you in the Modern spirit, Chantelle Campbell is taking over Deck of the Week this week to share a primer on one of her favorite Modern archetypes: Grishoalbrand!)

Since Grishoalbrand’s creation by Bob Huang in 2015, the unique interactions between Nourishing Shoal, Worldspine Wurm, and Griselbrand have captured the hearts and minds of combo players. Grishoalbrand is a glass cannon deck (one that has one opportunity to go off before it’s left in pieces) with the potential to combo off on turn two – though, more realistically, we’re looking for a turn four combo finish. The deck has led me to one of my best tournament finishes: losing in the semi-finals of the WMCQ in 2016, which will always hold a special place in my heart.

But what makes Grishoalbrand so powerful? Aside from an approximately 17% chance to win on turn two against an opponent with no interaction, you can also combo off at instant speed. I have quite often won with a Path to Exile on the stack, and once or twice with my own Pact of Negation “lose the game” trigger waiting to resolve. Grishoalbrand has very good matchups against blue-based decks, as splicing a spell on an opponent’s end-step only to untap and cast that spell usually proves to be too much tempo for most counterspell strategies. You also have access to Blood Moon and Chalice of the Void in the board to hedge against big mana and aggro alike.

So then why has Grishoalbrand been relegated to Tier Two? While blue-based interaction is a walk, black-based discard spells are a nightmare. Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek prey on your need for specific combo pieces, and when combined with a reasonable clock (I’m looking at you, Death’s Shadow), it can be hard to build back up to a place to combo. Graveyard hate such as Relic of Progenitus, Grafdigger’s Cage and Rest in Peace can also be challenging for aspiring Grishoalbrand pilots, and can poorly position Grishoalbrand in metagames where other graveyard-based decks such as Dredge are prevalent.

Five Swamps is a lot of Swamps, but when you are running three Blood Moon out of the board, it’s a necessary evil. Another such evil is Temple of Malice. In a deck where you are often constrained on mana, having only 19 lands, a tapped land can be disastrous. However, the scry effect is even more valuable, as you often simply need to hit your combo pieces.

While Grishoalbrand looks simple to pick up and play, the smallest decisions, such as discarding an extra land to your Faithless Looting, can make or break your games. The amount of graveyard interaction that is still being played to combat decks like Dredge and Hollow One, or even cards like Snapcaster Mage and Gurmag Angler, can also make your turn two or turn three wins impossible. However, the recent unbanning of Jace, the Mind Sculptor in Modern should mean that there will be more blue-based Control decks for Grishoalbrand to feast on, not to mention an uptick in Tron and Burn decks. Is it possible that Grishoalbrand is even better-positioned now than it was last weekend? I can’t wait to find out!

A Spike at heart, Chantelle spends her free time prepping for tournaments, working toward the ever-elusive Mythic Championship, and championing other competitive ladies. She’s a combo aficionado and seasoned aggro deck player, and Standard and Modern are her preferred formats. Growing and improving as a player, both technically and in her mental game, are of the utmost importance to her.